When I came to live in Knysna in 2015, I was wearing “rose-coloured specs” having come most recently from KwaZulu-Natal where crime is rampant, where perpetrators of crime don’t think twice about hurting people and where everyone has a form of home-security measure in place.

I was listening to a young couple from Gauteng talking the other day and raving about how safe Knysna is compared to Johannesburg...